MLB.com's Carrie Muskat has been covering Major League Baseball since 1981 and is the author of "Banks to Sandberg to Grace: Five Decades of Love and Frustration with the Cubs." You can follow her on Twitter @CarrieMuskat. Here, she blogs about the Cubs.

12/11 Minor League staffs

Marty Pevey will return to managing as skipper of the Cubs’ Triple-A Iowa team, Buddy Bailey stays at Double-A Tennessee, Dave Keller will skipper Class A Daytona, and Mark Johnson will manage the new Class A Kane County affiliate. The Cubs announced the Minor League staffs on Tuesday.

Pevey, 51, just completed his third season as the Minor League catching coordinator. He last managed in 2009 with Class A Peoria, when he was named Midwest League manager of the year, leading the team to an 81-57 record. Mike Mason will return as Iowa pitching coach and Brian Harper, who was Daytona’s manager last season, will join the Triple-A team as hitting coach. Harper was the Mesa Solar Sox hitting coach in the Arizona Fall League this year.

This will be Bailey’s second straight season with Tennessee, and 24th as a Minor League manager. Bailey, 55, guided the Smokies to a 72-68 record in 2012, and picked up his 1,600th win on July 6. He ranks fourth among active managers in wins. Jeff Fassero will return as Tennessee pitching coach and Desi Wilson will move up from Daytona to be the Smokies hitting coach.

Keller, 53, was Iowa’s hitting coach last season and a special assistant to the Major League team in 2011. This will be his 10th season in the Cubs organization. He has managed in the Minor Leagues for the Reds, indians and White Sox. Mariano Duncan will join Keller as Daytona’s hitting coach and Storm Davis will join the Cubs’ organization as the team’s pitching coach.

The 2013 season will be the Cubs’ first in Kane County after eight years in Peoria, and Johnson, 37, will be at the helm. The former big league catcher has managed Class A Boise for two years, and the Hawks won the second-half East division with a 24-14 record. Boise won the Northwest League East Division Series, but lost to Vancouver in the best-of-three league championship series, 2-1.
Johnson will be joined at Kane County by pitching coach Ron Villone and hitting coach Tom Beyers.

Gary Van Tol, who has 20 years of coaching experience, will take over as Class A Boise manager. David Rosario returns as the Hawks pitching coach, and Bill Buckner will return as hitting coach for his second season. Buckner enjoyed a 22-year Major League playing career, playing for the Cubs from 1977-84. Jonathan Fierro, son of former Cubs athletic trainer John Fierro, will begin his first season as Boise’s athletic trainer.

Bobby Mitchell will stay as manager for the Mesa Rookie League team, which will have two hitting coaches in Ricardo Medina and Jimmy Gonzalez. Medina has been a coach, manager or scout in the Cubs organization since 1999. Gonzalez is a former catcher who played 14 Minor League seasons after he was selected in the first round by the Astros in 1991.

Yudith Ozorio will manage the Dominican squad, the same position he has held for the past three seasons. Leo Hernandez will serve as the pitching coach in his 18th year with the club while Oscar Bernard makes his organization debut as the club’s hitting coach. Osmin Melendez will serve as the Venezuelan Cubs manager, a newly created team. He will be joined by hitting coach Franklin Blanco, who begins his seventh year with the organization.

* The Cubs also announced their Minor League coordinators for the 2013 season, including four newcomers to the organization. Tim Cossins takes over as field coordinator after 10 seasons in the Marlins farm system, including the last six as the catching coordinator. Cossins takes over for Brandon Hyde, who was promoted to director of player development in August.

Derek Johnson is the new Minor League pitching coordinator after 11 seasons at Vanderbilt University as the team’s pitching coach, including the last three as the school’s associate head coach/pitching coach. Johnson earned National Pitching Coach of the Year honors in 2004 and National Assistant Coach of the Year honors in 2010.

Anthony Iapoce, the special assistant to the general manager and player development, will oversee the Minor League hitting program while contributing to additional projects within the organization. He has spent the last three seasons as roving hitting coordinator for the Blue Jays.

Carmelo Martinez enters his 16th season in the Cubs organization, and his first as hitting coordinator for the Cubs Single-A, Rookie League and Dominican League teams. He was the Latin American field coordinator for the previous five years (2008-12). Jose Flores joins the Cubs as Minor League infield coordinator, and will begin his 13th year as a coach or manager. Lee Tinsley enters his third year as the outfield/base running coordinator.

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4 Comments

Kind of bummed there was no mention of the passing of Tom Pratt in this article! He was a great man that has been a pitching coach in the Cubs system for over a decade. Would have had one of these jobs for sure.

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